Monday, November 26, 2012

WOW! It's been 12 consecutive years...soon to be 13! Who knew in the year 2000, when I started Reader's Art in East Lansing, Michigan, that it would still be an annual event 13 years later!

CALL FOR ARTISTS

Reader's
Art 13:New Beginnings

March 8-April 26, 2013

A show of artists books
with a focus on new
beginnings…political or otherwise.

In this election year, it seemed reasonable to
consider new beginnings. Certainly the politicians are always declaring a
"new vision" for America. What new beginnings might you like to see?

While politically motivated work will have an
advantage, all work that deals with the wide open theme of New Beginnings will
be considered.

This is show of ARTISTS BOOKS. All media and structures
that can be construed as a book or refer sufficiently to bookness will be
considered. Artists should send between 3-10 jpg's and a resume and/or artists
statement.

Applications are due Jan 15, 2013

MEDIA

2-d and 3-d are welcome.

All media welcome, all
approaches, even installation and performance. Editions or one of a kind books
and book objects or book
referential work. I am always willing to expand the reaches of book art to the
edges of the known universe and beyond.

HOW TO APPLY

Send accurate slides,photos,
MAC compatible cd-rom of the work you plan to show, with SASE for return, or
Email high quality jpg’s.

Written explanation of the
work is welcomed.

Appointments may be made for
in-person viewing of work.

Accepted artists will be
expected to provide a resume and artist’s statement about their work and press
clippings. Accepted artists will be asked to provide client lists as well.

SALES AT
SUSAN HENSEL GALLERY are encouraged.
but not required. You may send NFS
work.

All work is sold on
consignment. The gallery keeps 40%
of the sale price. The artist
receives 60% of the sale price.

INSURANCE, SHIPPING, SECURITY

Susan Hensel Gallery carries
a basic loss policy that will pay the artist 60% of the sale price in the event
of theft or total loss. The gallery building also has a security system and
residential occupancy.

All shipping costs are the
responsibility of the artist. Accepted work must be
sent with return UPS or FedEX barcoded shipping label enclosed; You can set up
an online account at UPS or FED EX. No charges accrue until your package is
shipped. If a piece sells, return shipping is not charged as the box will not
be shipped. All return shipping MUST be by FEDEX or UPS. No exceptions. No
COD’s.

PUBLICITY

1000 postcards will be
distributed

local, area and national
press kits will be sent

email and fax publicity

and your help planning
guerrilla marketing

DATES and CHECKLIST

• Accepted work due March 1, 2013. Return shipping MUST be
enclosed with the actual pre-paid
labels. Accepted work must be sent with return UPS or
FedEX barcoded shipping label enclosed; You can set up an online account at UPS
or FED EX. No charges accrue until your package is shipped. If a piece sells,
return shipping is not charged as the box will not be shipped. All return
shipping MUST be by FEDEX or UPS. No exceptions. No COD's.

• artists reception Saturday,
March 8, 5-9 pm

• all work picked up at end
of show April 27 -29, please call for times.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Nate Petterson is a painter, usually. But last year he spent a semester in the clay studio at University of Minnesota and these bottles emerged...broken, misshapen, sometimes with faces and protruberances. They are uneasy even as they reflect the everyday experience of a discarded bottle of root beer.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

I have rented a storefront on S. Bloomington Avenue for the duration of the renovation through Reader's Art so I can easily continue working on the bodies of work that have been languishing in the on and off work practice that was necessitated by life with a gallery.Each day that I get to work on this project, I come home exhausted after only a few hours of work. So much looking!

I try one thing and then another and look at the whole series of 10 drawings to see if they scan, if they tell the story that they have been created to tell.

Little by little, they accomplish their work.

Each drawing is part of an installation and performance that I expect to present aroun this time next year. I could do it sooner...except for Reader's Art!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Two glorious weeks on Lake Superior! I just returned from 2 glorious, restorative weeks on the shores of Lake Superior. A beautiful surprise appeared shortly before I packed up to come back to Minneapolis, were 2 beach artworks by Dale Kennedy.

I arrived to a torn -up house. The Gallery looks like a hazmat site! Do you remember the scene in the movie ET when they wrapped the house and entered in hazmat suits to try to capture ET? That's what the gallery/studio looks like! "Why?" you may ask.Well, the renovation continues. I am installing a full bathroom on the first floor. It takes away some of the exhibition space, but will be worth it in the end.

The exhibition/work space!

The front door of the gallery!

The ADA compliant bathroom, framed in.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the house, more bathroom action. As you probably know, I live above the gallery. The bathroom upstairs was falling apart...in fact it is a wonder the toilet did not fall through the floor. But when I got home a few days ago, everything was stripped out of that bathroom and the fixtures were back ordered!

My personal bathroom as it looks today.
So, in the middle of the night, and all day too, I have to traipse down to the glorious bathroom in the basement.

Basement bathroom

temporary shower

For a day or 2, I showered at friends houses. Today a temporary, illegal shower was installed for me, next to the washing machine, sharing its water supply.

interesting water supply!
I hear a rumor that I will have a temporary toilet upstairs sometime tomorrow while we await the backordered fixtures! No more traipsing to the basement at 2 in the morning!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Kat Corrigan is a superb painter of all things. She really knows how to throw paint and color around to create works that come alive. She has just begun 30 dogs in 30 days. Follow her progress on her blog.

Meanwhile, at the bus stop, a happy group on their way to a Twins game, asked me to take their picture.

Monday, April 16, 2012

West
Virginia in Quilts recalls my childhood memories of
growing up in rural Appalachia.My
family has long been involved with folk arts and crafts, and I was encouraged
to explore these creative outlets both at home and in school.Looking back, I realize that much
emphasis was placed on West Virginia as a center for Appalachian crafts and
tourism, and larger issues affecting the state, like mountaintop removal and
rampant meth use, were swept under the rug.When I was in school, we weren’t taught how to be socially,
financially, and environmentally loyal to our state – we were told that to be
successful adults, we’d probably have to move out of state.So, with West Virginia in Quilts, I wanted to use a traditional Appalachian
craft, quilting, to bring awareness to more serious issues affecting West
Virginia.

I
chose an accordion fold structure so that the book unfolds and spreads out like
a quilt.The title of the book
works on a couple of levels:It is
a glimpse of West Virginia through beautiful quilt patterns, and it is also a
state in quilts, or covered from
view.Since the truth rarely
remains hidden, I let the ugliness underneath peek through the quilts on the
surface; when the quilt unfolds, the whole story is revealed.The front and back are covered with
handmade paper that reminds me of quilt batting.

"Let me die," he says. He is yelling it at Mom,at the nurse, there in his room, at me at the long end of the phone and at God -- hovering, as he'd like to hover, freed from his stagnant frame."I'm old and want to die in peace."All the yelling doesn't seem peaceful but I know it is what he wants.

We had to remove the gun and knives after we caught him with the .22 in his mouth. Were his hands too arthritic as he fumbled for the trigger? Or was he, even then, thinking it over?I wondered what it would have been, over the phone, to hear the silence after the blast?

"Why didn't I find you on the floor?"she demanded. He had threatened to throw himself from the bed in an effort to kill himself.

In the delicately gnarled strands of their life together, they felt out the hereafter. Mom negotiated the exit as he struggled in his unresponsive shell.

Their conversation was peppered with allusions to the great beyond.Its smell was in the air. She said to him, ìI thought you'd be more of a man," in the way he dealt with age and what followed.

I think of the time that I cannot grasp.And what if I could, but grasped the wrong moment?Mother. Father. A woman and a man, in time, and running out of time.

A flicker of light suddenly blinding gold and yellow and white in hand-to-hand combat with Darkness. A bird wing glide suspends briefly before free-fall.Are there miracles?

I'd never understood the things that seemed so important to him -ancient not-working timepieces, tie clips, old radios that he described as brand new, his Hathaway shirts with their three-hole buttons - until now. These were the things he had to offer after so many years. These were his legacy, not of typical fortune, but of a life.

I have an image of him in my head from a photograph of himas a young man, before knowing my mother. She sits now by his side and holds his hand. She dials me with her free hand and rasps into the phone. He sleeps and when he wakes, he gasps. I think he is surprised to find himself still here.

Rich laughter chimed like heavy glass but I couldn't tell what caused such a sound. Spirals held me enthralled, rapt, terrified. I wandered about, hoping not to burst, but not afraid to die.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Judith Strom- This book is an exploration of our acreage here in Montana. All the materials for book except the thread for binding & stitching and the computer inks came from our property as did the images. The paper is handmade from yucca.

As with most of my work this piece grows out of my love of the natural world and most especially the beauty of our home here in Montana.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Marilyn Stablein - An ongoing series of artist books Notions and Accessories
explores an artist’s whimsical narrative history of needlework, notions, and
women’s antique fashion and fabric accessories.By utilizing actual found antique objects I hope to honor
and celebrate everyday women’s historical tools and handiwork. Current completed
artist books in this series include works devoted to The Bias Tape, Needles,
vintage Handkerchiefs, and vintage nylon stockings and a stocking bag.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

This artist’s book is
a personal exploration of reproductive choice. With the numerous and intense
political messages and brash facts and figures, sometimes it becomes difficult
to see the intensely personal nature of the choices we make about our
bodies. Despite all the political rhetoric, it remains taboo to speak
about reproduction in most circles.

This book acts as a place of calm reflection about the choices I have
made and why I feel strongly about women's rights. I have deep convictions regarding my own body but, despite these convictions,
this issue makes each of us deeply vulnerable. I decided that I should create a
piece that made me deeply vulnerable and shared my difficult trek towards being
positive about my reproductive life. I wanted to share my vulnerability with
the world in the hopes that it might speak to other individuals trying to make
their way in the world.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home Elizabeth Schendel- I
have always enjoyed looking through my family’s collection of photographs and
listening to the stories that have been passed down and told over and over
again, and I recently realized that my family’s stories are significant to me
not just for what I can learn about the past, but also for the new perspective
that I can take on the present. My grandparents’ stories provide insight into
their character, into my parents’ lives, and even into myself, as I see their
influence on the family and also learn about what influenced them. Even the family stories that I am not
personally aware of have influenced how I view myself and understand the
world. Because of this recognition
of both the textual and visual narrative influence, my work makes use of found
texts and photographs, as well as original imagery, to create pieces that,
while of a personal nature for myself, create a space for viewers to create and
consider their own narratives.

Monday, April 9, 2012

produced during an artist residency at the Center for Book and Paper Arts Columbia College Chicago

The printed book serves as one of two parts of the project - the second being an interactive app that can be viewed on a personal iPad. In both iterations of the books, the same content is used but presented in a way that takes advantage of the medium.

Thematically, in this collection of over 40 illustrations of imaginary landscapes, themes of materiality are explored through images of cities whose landscapes juxtapose buildings from varied time periods and geographic areas. The landscapes mostly combine sights from Chicago, where I currently live, with images from my home town in Croatia. In such spaces realities collide and coexist furthering a notion of vague familiarity mixed with displacement that mirrors the 21st century experience.

I believe that this book is well suited to the theme “longing for home” because of it’s strong personal subtext which alludes to our tendencies to carry our past with us and often find it resurrected in front of us when we least expect it. I find it fascinating that we carry it all with us no matter where we go.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home Robin RossAerie and Prayers of Being Winged

Home to me as the person Robin is very much about belonging to community. Practicalities such as structure and spirituality both occur and can enhance our belonging. Home to me as the creature Robin, or as any other bird, is about flying and looking below and above, about survival, wanting long life for continuation of my species. As creature I am always connected to my environment - questions of spirit and belongingness don't occur.

I am a painter. I paint paintings and sometimes re-create old unwanted books through the use of carving and painting and drawing.

Book as object and art allows me to enhance what already exists. I’m both playful and serious when using serendipity and precision in cutting, manipulating, collaging and painting. The books are unique, and usually graffitied, foxed, water damaged, or otherwise unwanted. This combines my love of language with visual and sensual art. Often the old paper, the smell, and the description of knowledge and poetry inspire what I paint; inversely, what I paint may evoke more writing. In the case of these bird books, there is very little word-formed writing other than bits of asemic chicken scratch.

Each book is given new life. Previous words and images peek through or are covered with layers of paint. Each original page is inclusive to what I am painting. It folds and opens; containing a time past below the surface of the present story I put upon it - each embellishment places history upon history. The changing nature of the paper and print underneath the actual oil paint and ephemeral chance are part of the character of each book.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Maryann Riker is a mixed-media artist whose artist books and collage works convey a visual narrative to remind one of the past and journeys through which we all travel throughout our lives.Her works incorporate digital images, Victorian iconography, and other symbols to convey a sense of memory and time as one opens and unfolds the work.Her works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally and are in the Special Collections of: The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Walker Art Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, The National Museum for Women in the Arts, Yale University, Mills College, University of Iowa, Rhode Island School of Design, Lafayette College, Rutgers University, Newark Art Museum, Newark Public Library and many other private and public collections.When not creating, Maryann is writing grants, reading mystery or historical fiction novels, practicing to be a wild wannabe or working on becoming a legend in her own living room.

The act of naming things creates a sense of relative safety at sea. Like the pilot’s verse that guided sailors through dangerous shoals, Admeasure is about gaining a false sense of control through signifiers and ritual that guide one through a world that is largely uncontrollable. This book explores the dialectic tension between the dangerous unknown and measure, rules and tradition. While at sea, measurements, maritime law, navigation aids and other modes of dominance through organization are easily lost to the forces of nature and the psychology of a journey. The content of Admeasure draws from a variety of archetypal journeys including Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Homer’s Odyssey, Bas Jan Ader’s In Search of the Miraculous and my own time spent in small boats.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

A series of 14 photographs based on a true story
(see below) and presented as a centered accordion book in a fabric like box.
The title of the box is hidden by the band to keep the secret of the story
safe.

Some secrets become obsessions and can change the
course of one’s life. This metamorphosis is at the heart of a project made of
several artistic short stories. One of them, The Caretaker, is based on the
life of Mrs T. On her wedding day, her aunt, who she thought was her mother
broke the secret about herparents’ identity. This shocking revelation slowly changed Mrs. T.’s
destiny and sent her off to roam about the world in search of her father.

Mrs T.’s Vietnamese mother had met a Chinese man in
Hong-Kong, but their love story was short lived. Returning home to care for her
dying mother, she realized she was pregnant. Two years after Mrs T.’s birth,
her mother died and the little girl was raised by her aunt who hid the identity
of her parents until her wedding day. Before the ceremony the bride received a
box containing an old photo of a young man and a golden ring that her mother had left for her. After
spending the next 20 years raising her children, Mrs T. decides to leave her
family to find her father. In order to finance her quest, she will work as a
caretaker.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

This
accordion-fold artist book explores the nostalgia and longing for our pasts.
The piece highlights six different homes and their specific qualities for which
the speaker/narrator still yearns. Circulate
investigates the notion of “absence” and how objects, emotions, and histories
can continue living on through memory.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home Carol Morris-The place is the exotic landscape of childhood in
rural Ohio. Where tigers and lions could co-exist with squirrels. While doing
the book I was enchanted by feelings of beauty and safety. Altered books
are my favorite medium. I love books and love discarded books. By altering
them, I preserve them.

Bio: I try to remember it's
not about me so I will talk in the third person. Carol is a poet, video film
maker, and visual artist. Painting, assemblage and altering things are
her favorite mediums. In the last year she's been included in exhibits in
Michigan, California and Colorado.

She continues her decade long work of bringing art
to women in prison. She lives in Ann Arbor Michigan and loves her
grandsons abundantly, as her grandmother did her.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Barbara Milman- I work primarily in two media: prints and handmade artist books (either in
very small editions or unique). The books all have a message or story that is
told both by the books as art objects and by their text and images.

The message, for the past several years, has been about climate
change. My specific concerns have
been with the fate of coral reefs, the warming of the oceans and the Arctic,
the effect of climate change on different environments and species.

My books are experimental in form.
Most recently I have been making books out of old cigar boxes, which I
alter and into which I put smaller books, or texts and images. The books are multi-media,
incorporating monoprints, linocuts, solar plate etchings, hand stamped type,
decorative paper, digital photography, and digital design. At times I use some traditional
bookmaking methods, such as accordion books or Coptic bindings, but for the
most part techniques are developed for each book to fit the design and the message.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

"The project is a visual interpretation of the book Invisible Cities,
by Italo Calvino. Calvino’s
book is a dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan as Marco Polo reports on
the vast Tartar Empire through the lens of personal insights that arise from
interactions each place. A
fourteen odd page mixed media piece, working with pop-up architecture and found
prints, my work creates vignettes of Khan’s cities, participating in the
conversation as a reader reflecting on Polo’s discoveries about the
relationship between self and setting.
The viewer is given a chance to engage with a city fully assembled,
stretching out as an accordion of compiled images and quotations. Closed, pop-ups retreat back into blank
pages, just as Calvino’s cities themselves are in essence bare canvases. Prints draw on the discussions of the
limitations of language in establishing a common vernacular of experience. "